Two meditations on engineering

Two very nice essays on Engineering -- what constitutes it and how it has affected our lives. First is from Og at Neanderpundit:

What makes an engineer?
I don�t have an engineering degree- though I do engineering work. I am an autodidact in almost everything I�ve done, and that ability, to learn what I need to learn quickly, has served me well.

What I have done, is become an engineer the way engineers USED to be made, the way they�re educated to this day, in the UK.

In this country, at the turn of the century, an engineer was a man capable of operating an engine, hence the term. When most people think �engine� they think �motor�, but that�s not what an engine is, an engine, strictly speaking, is a mechanism. Most people think of �internal combustion engine� or �steam engine� but those are just mechanisms used to convert one form of energy into another.

Consider the lathe. At one time, lathes were just things that turned. Most of what they did was let you cut or file or turn something that was round. Around 1810, Henry Maudslay invented a machine that combined the accuracy of Jesse Ramsden�s �dividing engine� with his rigid, accurate lathe.

This created the engine lathe. There are still bucketloads of people who think that an engine lathe is used to make engines. An engine lathe is used to make accurate cuts on metal, both inside and outside diameter, and most importantly, cut threads. Up to this time, most threads were cut by wrapping a piece of line around the part and the threads cut with a file. An engine lathe meant, that for the very first time, threads could be accurately cut, and a thread made on one machine would fit a thread made on another.

Og then brings this into the present time with the observation that a lot of the really cool innovations -- the disruptive technologies are being made by amateurs who could well be called Engineers -- they understand the mechanisms and can figure out new ways to put things together. The next one is from Chris Byrne at the Anarchangel:

Engineering
What makes a good, or great engineer?

I'm an engineer; at heart, by education, by training, by experience, and by profession.

I have degrees in aerospace, and computer engineering; I have a large amount of direct materials, mechanical, electrical, and information systems engineering experience and training; but those things are not what made me an engineer.

I'm an engineer, because it's what I am, mind body and soul. It's wired into me at the very base level of my intelligence and personality. Sure I could have chosen to do something else, some other profession; and I've certainly held jobs that had little (on the surface) to do with engineering; but an engineer is what I am, no matter what I do. Even serving in the Air Force, and doing security work; I've always had an engineering mindset and method, because it's simply who I am...

and a bit more:

Ok, but what is a good engineer? What is engineering?

Engineering is the art of HOW. How things work, how things are built, how things interact and react, how problems are solved.

Engineering is the fusion of the theoretical and empirical. Scientist understand WHY things work, technicians know THAT things work if they do certain things... but engineers understand HOW things work (and to do so must understand much of the other two), and this understanding allows them to do and build, and fix new things.

A great engineer is a great engineer, no matter what their discipline; no, not all knowledge and experience transfers, but if someone makes great mechanical engineer, they most likely could make a great aerospace engineer, or nuclear engineer with the proper motivation, training, and experience; because great engineering requires three fundamental drives or abilities in edition to training, education, and experience:

1. The innate understanding of how components, systems, and methodologies interact with each other; and the ability to distinguish and determine causation, correlation, and effect.

2. The absolute drive to figure out the "how" of everything around them.

3. The ability to generalize knowledge, experience, and insight gained on one system, component. or methodology; to other systems, components, and methodologies; similar or dissimilar.

We call the synthesis of these things, ingenuity; and it's what makes engineers something other than technicians or scientists.

Lot's more on both sites and well worth your time reading. Good stuff!